UiA establishes a long-term research partnership with India

The Priority Research Centre in Mechatronics and the WISENET centre at the University of Agder received 4,5 million NOK from the Research Council of Norway to establish a research collaboration with renowned Indian universities.

UiA-researchers from campus Grimstad join forces with Indian universities to establish a network for interdisciplinary research in mechatronics and IKT.

“The funding is a recognition of the research environment in both centres and our research partners”, says Jing Zhou, Professor in Mechatronics at UiA’s Department of Engineering Sciences.

Professor Jing Zhou is the Research Director of the Priority Research Centre Mechatronics and the project manager of INMOST.

We aim to establish a long-term partnership between India and Norway that focusses on research and education within intelligent offshore mechatronics systems.

The project is titled “Indo-Norwegian Collaboration in Intelligent Offshore Mechatronics Systems (INMOST)”. 

Professor Jing Zhou is Research Director of the Priority Research Centre Mechatronics and the project manager for INMOST. Together with Associate Professor Linga Reddy Cenkeramaddi, Applied Research Division leader of the WISENET centre, she will coordinate the project. 

Increased mobility of researchers and students

The primary goals of the project are among other things to strengthen competitive ability and innovation capacity, solve societal challenges and develop academic environments of high quality.

Photo Linga Reddy Cenkeramaddi is an Associate Professor at the department of ICT and Leader of the Applied Research Division at WISENET Center.

Together they will build a multinational network for interdisciplinary research. This network will bring different fields of expertise together, such as offshore mechatronic systems, smart-sensors, wireless communication, network processing, robot technology for cranes, vessels, drilling and well control, and wind turbines.

“Our objective is to integrate the knowledge from these fields of expertise within research-based education, and to stimulate research innovation of ongoing projects in both centres”, she explains.

Knowledge exchange

The researchers wish to involve students and the public and private sector as well.

The project intends to create sustainable partnerships between the industrial sector and the most renowned academic institutions and research centres worldwide.

According to Folke Haugland, Head of Department of ICT and Geir Grasmo, Head of Department of Engineering Sciences, this partnership will open up to a unique international network.  Research centres at UiA and the Indian universities will have the opportunity to exchange knowledge and share expertise.

“The project gives researchers and students at the University of Agder the opportunity to collaborate with some of the best researchers within this field in India”, says Haugland. 

“The collaboration gives us access to an international network for knowledge exchange with researchers in different areas of expertise in the faculty.  It will also provide our researchers with good opportunities in which they can collaborate with renowned international researchers”, says Grasmo.

FACTS

The partners in the project “Indo-Norwegian Collaboration in Intelligent Offshore Mechatronics Systems (INMOST)” are the Indian Institute of Technology (Indore), the Indian Institute of Technology (Palakkad), the Indian Institute of Technology (Tirupati) and the National Institute of Technology Goa, NTNU Ålesund and NORCE Bergen. 

Key researchers from the Indian partner institutes are Professor Saidi Reddy Parne from NIT Goa, Professor Santosh Kumar Vishwakarma from IIT Indore, Professor Rama Krishna Sai Gorthi from IIT Tirupati and Professor Shaikshavali Chitraganti from IIT Palakkad.

The project runs from 2020 to 2023. The project is supported by the Research Council of Norway’s programme Funding for International Partnership (INTPART) and the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (DIKU). 

The INTPART programme promotes the development of long-term relations between Norwegian higher education and research institutions and strong research groups and institutions in eight priority partner countries: Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa and the US,

UiA also manages the project “Indo-Norwegian Collaboration in Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems” (INCAPS) which is funded by the INTPART-programme of the Research Council of Norway. Associate Professor Linga Reddy Cenkeramaddi is the project manager.